Jody R. Westby, Esq.

ERICE, Sicily  This ancient hilltop town, rife with Roman, Greek,
Norman
and other influences, is hosting a very modern gathering: a conference
on global risks like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons,
and
the world’s lagging energy supply.

More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30
countries were hunkered down here for the 40th annual conference on
“planetary emergencies”. The term was coined by Dr. Antonino Zichichi, a
native son and a theoretical physicist who has made Erice a hub for
experts to discuss persistent, and potentially catastrophic, global
challenges.

Jody R. Westby, the chief executive of Global Cyber Risk, a
Washington-based consulting company, warned that governments were not
doing enough to anticipate attacks. She said that the United States,
while investing heavily in classified work on communications networks,
had only one small program doing advanced research on the
vulnerabilities in the private networks that handle the brunt of
government communications and information management.

Jody R. Westby, Esq. is CEO and Founder of
Global Cyber Risk.
She chairs the American Bar Association’s Privacy & Computer Crime
Committee and represents the ABA on the National Conference of Lawyers
and Scientists.
She is also a member of the United Nation’s High Level Experts Group on
Cyber Security and and serves as
Distinguished Fellow for Carnegie
Mellon CyLab.

Jody brings a seasoned, multidisciplinary
perspective to the many issues facing businesses and governments today
in the areas of privacy, information security, outsourcing/offshoring
risks, cybercrime, and IT business risk management. Drawing upon more
than twenty years of technical, legal, policy, and business experience,
she regularly consults with governments, private sector executives, and
operational personnel on the development of enterprise security programs
that dovetail the technical, legal, operational, and managerial
considerations.

As an internationally recognized attorney, consultant, and speaker,
Jody has had the opportunity to work with many skilled professionals.
For Global Cyber Risk, she has assembled a team of highly-specialized
senior staff with targeted and proven expertise. The Global Cyber Risk
team knows how to bridge issues to balance risk and reward and reach a
common goal of protecting digital assets, infrastructure, and
operations.

Prior to forming Global Cyber Risk, she served as senior managing
director for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), specializing in outsourcing
and cyber security/privacy issues. Before that, she was president of
The Work-IT Group, launched an IT solutions company for the CIA, managed
the domestic policy department for the world’s largest business
organization, was senior fellow and director of information technology
(IT) studies for one of the nation’s leading think tanks, practiced law
with two top-tier New York firms, and spent ten years in the computer
industry specializing in database management systems.